


The Ball Pit Incident

by KingJulienne



Series: Certain Things You Don't Do With Swimmers [3]
Category: Free!
Genre: But he's out here living his best life, But he's out here living his best life so can anyone judge him, Chuck E. Cheese - Freeform, Crack, Crack Fiction, Free! - Freeform, Gen, Humor, It's 3 in the morning, Makoto Tachibana - Freeform, Nagisa Hazuki - Freeform, Rei Ryuugasaki, The stress must be getting to Rei, Vaguely Big Bang Theory Inspired, haru nanase - Freeform, rin matsuoka - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 11:20:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14953704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingJulienne/pseuds/KingJulienne
Summary: What you do for your friends says a lot about you, right?





	The Ball Pit Incident

_[To: Mako-chan: Mako-chaaaaaaaaaaaaan! You have to help me! ;~;]_

_[To: Nagisa: Nagisa, it’s three in the morning. What could it possibly be that couldn’t wait a few hours later?]_

_[To: Mako-chan: Well you KNOW how I took Rei to Chuck E. Cheese’s?]_

_[To: Nagisa: Why don’t I like where this is going…]_

_[To: Mako-chan: Well he got sugar high off of soda and SOOOOO much candy and even the pizza, but I don’t know how???? Anyway it was fun at first but then he wouldn’t stop! ;~; so now we’re still here…]_

_[To: Nagisa: At three in the morning?!??!!?!]_

_[To: Mako-chan: And he won’t get out of the ball pit! DX Mako-chan, you have to help me! Rei’s parents are going to be pissed! MY parents are going to be pissed, omg. And tell Haru-chan that if he’s going to help then he has to help, not encourage him!]_

_[To: Nagisa: Nagisa…how did you know Haru was here?]_

_[To: Mako-chan: Oh come on, Mako-chan. It’s not new news. You two still have sleepovers, don’t act like it isn’t true~~~~]_

_[To: Nagisa: Gdi, okay. WE’RE coming. He’s already up and putting shoes on…]_

_[To: Mako-chan: THANK YOU MAKO-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!! <3 <3]_

Makoto stared at the old building that served so much greasy pizza, it seemed to have leaked through to the outside, the corners of the rooftops and the foundations run down with a darker shade of the building’s colors. Makoto shivered; the building wasn’t this grossly terrifying and terrifyingly gross in the daytime, was it?

Haru kept walking while Makoto dreaded what was to come. He headed into the place after Haru, finding Nagisa standing a few feet from what should be the ball pit, clutching his phone to his chest, all the panic in his face fading into relief.

“Thank goodness you’re here!” Nagisa said, throwing his arms around Makoto when the distance had closed enough. Makoto chuckled a little, patting Nagisa on the hair.

“So where’s Rei?” he asked with a sigh.

“In there,” Nagisa confirmed, pointing to the ball pit.

Makoto and Haru turned that way, watching the plastic orbs innocent from a distance but up close probably coated with the greasy and grubby fingers of kids who still eat this pizza. The orbs rolled up and down like waves of an ocean and parted like the earth with a tremor as Rei’s head popped up out of the mix of red, blue, and yellow balls, his glasses askew and a smile so wide on his face it could cut his face in half. Makoto almost felt bad that he’d have to end his happiness so soon.

“Makoto-senpai! Haruka-senpai!” Rei cheered, throwing his hands up. He slapped his arms down through the balls, sending several into the air with him. “Have you come to join me, swimming in the ball pit?”

Makoto kept his voice calmer than he was. “No, Rei, we’re here to take you home,” Makoto said. “Nagisa called for us. He said you wouldn’t get out of the ball pit.”

But to stay in the ball pit for many, many hours past closing was not only incredibly stupid, but stupidly incredible. Rei would’ve had to maintain his hiding spot until the last security guard left, and even so after the cleaning people made their departure. If Nagisa hadn’t unlocked one of the doors from the inside, Makoto and Haru wouldn’t be in here, either.

“We need to go home, Rei-chan!” Nagisa said, sounding like he’d been saying this for the past eight hours. Makoto wouldn’t doubt it. “It’s three in the morning! Our parents are going to kill us!”

Rei held up his hand, adjusting his glasses and instilling some kind of hope in Makoto that he’d come to reason. “No, Nagisa-kun. You don’t understand. I have championed the ball pit. The ball pit is my kingdom! Huzzah!” Rei threw himself into the ball pit, disappearing under the surface.

“See, Mako-chan? Talking to him won’t help,” Nagisa said. “Rei-chan won’t get out unless you go in there after him!”

Makoto sighed; he really didn’t want to have to do this. It was so early, and ball pits were so gross.

“Let him stay in there,” Haru said. Makoto and Nagisa turned around; it almost sounded cold-hearted, but it wasn’t. There was a glisten of approval in Haru’s eyes that made Makoto aware that he should’ve left him at home, too. “He’s found his true calling. I’m proud.”

Ignoring Haru, Makoto sighed and faced the ball pit. Apparently, he’d be the one to go in there after him. “Alright, Rei, if you’re not going to get out with words, I’ll have to come get you.”

Rei poked his head up, swallowed up in the plastic balls from the neck down. His face aged ten years with his fury at the challenge. “Come at me, knave!” he declared, swirling back under the balls again, like he’d been flushed down a toilet.

Steeling himself, Makoto entered the ball pit, swimming after Rei. Rei popped up behind him. “Ha! I am behind you, Makoto-senpai!”

Makoto whirled around; he caught the rustle of the balls as Rei disappeared under them again. He spotted the way they moved in an arch; Rei swimming underneath them. Makoto broke into a front crawl and swam through the balls toward Rei, reaching in to grab him. He passed over nothing, and Rei popped up on the other end of the ball pit.

“I am over here, Makoto-senpai! I have bested your speeds!”

Makoto grit his teeth; this was a bit frustrating now.

“Don’t give up, Mako-chan!” Nagisa cheered for him, worming around where he stood. Haru looked as though he were cheering for Rei, though torn between cheering for Makoto, too.

Rei burst from the ball pit, his arms held out in pirouette form. He span in one, descending with a, “I am over here, Makoto-senpai!”

Makoto could do this. He had two siblings, who put their heart, full attention, and outright stubbornness into the things they loved. If he could get Haru out of a fish tank in a Wal-Mart, he can get Rei out of the ball pit.

He swam after Rei for another thirty minutes.

Wherever he went, Rei was in the opposite direction, bursting forth from the balls to declare the difference in their positions, or where his happened to be, or a combination of the two. Just when Makoto aimed to give up, the balls rustled from behind Rei and Rin hopped out, the plastic balls flying everywhere. The redhead looked furious, his eyes wild, bearing his even wilder teeth as he descended upon Rei. Rin roared and snapped his arms around Rei’s neck before he could flee.

The two slammed back into the ball pit, Makoto screaming, Nagisa screaming, Rei screaming and Haru gasping in surprise.

“R-Rin?” Makoto called. He cut his gaze to Nagisa. “Rin was here with you two?” How long had _Rin_ been in the ball pit?

“No, I called him, too,” Nagisa explained, “but Rei knocked him out with his Butterfly-Chan Chop move and continued playing in the ball pit!”

Just as Makoto went to chastise Nagisa for leaving Rin in the ball pit after Rei knocked him unconscious, the two in question shot from the ball pit, Rei unconscious now and Rin dragging him toward the edge.

“Take this butterfly idiot out of here, please,” Rin asked Nagisa and Haru. As they went about that business, Rin nodded to Haru. “S’up Haru,” Rin muttered as he hauled himself from the ball pit. He turned and nodded to Makoto. “Makoto.”

With a sigh, Makoto greeted him. “Morning, Rin.”

Makoto exited the ball pit as quickly as he could, the sleeping Rei on the floor of the Chuck E. Cheese. After a quick decision via rock paper scissors on who should carry Rei home, Makoto and Haru headed out with Rei slung over Makoto’s shoulder. The entire way to Rei’s house, the entire explanation to his parents about what happened, and the entire trek back to Makoto’s place was spent by Makoto making a mental note not to give Rei sugar, and not to take him anywhere near a ball pit.

Ever again.


End file.
